Riverside judge to rule on Sheriff Bianco’s election investigation

RIVERSIDE Calif. (KESQ) A Riverside County judge is set to hear arguments Monday on whether to allow Sheriff Chad Bianco's investigation into the November 2025 special election to continue as planned. It's a probe that Bianco's ttorney now acknowledged has been effectively frozen by the legal battle surrounding it, in an email Sunday.

The hearing in Riverside County Superior Court comes as California Attorney General Rob Bonta presses his case on two fronts: through the Superior Court lawsuit filed last week and through an emergency petition filed Friday with the California Supreme Court. A separate petition from the UCLA Voting Rights Project is also pending before the state's highest court.

Bianco, a Republican candidate for governor, said Sunday his investigation is "on hold because of the politically motivated lawsuits and court filings."

In an email to News Channel 3 obtained Sunday evening, Bianco's private attorney Robert Tyler provided new details about why the probe has stalled and confirmed for the first time that a court-appointed special master Bianco has repeatedly referenced has never actually been designated.

"The special master has not yet been appointed by the court," Tyler wrote. "However, because of the filing of the petition in Riverside Superior Court, the court will not designate the special master until the civil lawsuit filed by the attorney general is resolved."

Tyler said the ballots and other evidence seized under the warrants remain under the jurisdiction of the court, with the sheriff's department serving as custodian. "We will all have to wait for the courts to decide whether the ballots are counted," he wrote.

The Riverside County Sheriff's Department is currently in possession of all ballots cast in the November 2025 special election on Proposition 50, the redistricting measure that passed statewide with 64% of the vote and carried Riverside County with more than 56%.

News Channel 3 has requested access to observe the ballots in the sheriff's custody; that request remains pending.

The probe began after a community group known as the Riverside Election Integrity Team, or REIT, claimed to have identified a discrepancy of approximately 45,896 votes between the number of ballots cast and the number counted in Riverside County.

Registrar of Voters Art Tinoco publicly challenged those claims in a presentation to the Riverside County Board of Supervisors on Feb. 10, explaining that REIT had relied on incomplete data, raw figures prone to human error and handwritten forms that are not used by election officials to determine actual vote counts.

The actual difference the county's Election Information Management System was 103 ballots, according to Tinoco.

Bonta first directed Bianco to pause the investigation on Feb. 26.

Bianco initially said he would comply but then obtained the third warrant in his investigation on March 19 without notifying the attorney general.

On March 20, Bianco held a press conference announcing the investigation would continue under the supervision of a special master, a claim that the attorney general's office has disputed, saying the warrant authorized only the seizure of materials and did not order a recount or appoint a special master.

On March 24, the sheriff seized an additional 426 boxes of ballot materials, completing execution of all three warrants.

Bonta's first legal effort, a petition filed March 23 in the Fourth District Court of Appeal, was denied the following day. The court said Bonta had not demonstrated why the matter could not be addressed in the Superior Court a ruling the attorney general's office said was based solely on venue and did not address the merits of the case.

Bonta then filed the Superior Court petition on March 26, seeking a writ of mandate to compel the sheriff to comply with his directives and to cancel or stay the March 19 warrant.

An initial hearing was held Friday and reset to Monday.

On Friday, Bonta escalated further, filing an emergency petition with the California Supreme Court asking the justices to intervene in what the filing described as an "unprecedented constitutional emergency."

That petition is separate from one filed March 26 by the UCLA Voting Rights Project on behalf of four Riverside County voters, asking the Supreme Court to order Bianco to return all seized ballots to the Registrar of Voters.

Robert Tyler, Sheriff Bianco's attorney, told News Channel 3 his client hopes the courts will ultimately allow the ballot count to proceed with an independent special master.

"For the sake of election integrity, we hope the courts will ultimately proceed and finalize the designation of a special master who will have independent and neutral jurisdiction," Tyler wrote. "Transparency is the foundation for public trust."

Bianco has maintained the investigation is lawful and has called Bonta's efforts to stop it politically motivated. He has said the probe has "absolutely nothing to do" with his campaign for governor.

The hearing is scheduled for Monday morning at the Riverside Historic Courthouse.

News Channel 3 will have live coverage from the courthouse.